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Annual Activity Report |
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 SHG Conference
The 6th annual state conference of SHG representatives was held this time in the premises of Khetramohan Vidya Bhawan,
Kanthi, East Medinipur since from 27 to 29th December 2006.
The three day long conference was attended by nearly 2500 participants from all the different districts of West Bengal.
The main theme for 6th conference was 'We are in development - Unnayane Amra'. Objective of the 6th conference were:
The main theme for 6th conference was 'We are in development - Unnayane Amra'. Objective of the 6th conference were:
 Facilitate sharing between the groups from areas to enable them to learn from each other
Offer opportunity for the policy and decision-makers to see the potentials of micro finance and SHGs as an effective instrument for empowerment and poverty reduction
Offer opportunity for the Panchayat functionaries to see the potentials and integrate the SHGs in their scheme of things
Offer platform for various stakeholders to see and redefine their possible roles and work out effective modalities for functional linkages
Invite the groups, agencies and individuals to offer the benefit of their experience and expertise to those groups and members who experience deficiencies and limitations and offer opportunity for their capacity building
Offer opportunities to the different support agencies to observe and analyze inconsistencies and gaps and fine-tune their respective strategies
Offer opportunity to the groups to project their successful activities by way of exhibiting their products through exhibitions
Arrange some training platform on important topics comprising both technical and organizational components
Come out with recommendations
Started to pour in at the venue from all districts since night of 26th.
During noon of 27th the eager participants joined a march from originating from a central location Kanthi bus stand and culminating at the venue.
The opening ceremony in post lunch session was marked by song and dance performance from the cultural wing of the host organisation Kajla Jana Kalyan Samiti.
The opening ceremony was graced by Members of Parliament from Haldia, and Kanthi along with Sabhadipati of East Medinipur Zilla Parishad, local leaders,
and representatives from UNDP, UBI, etc. On behalf of SHG Promotional Forum Smt. Bani Saraswati welcomed all and presented a brief on the Forum's activities and its future plan for strengthening the SHGs of all the corners of the state.
The dignitaries in their speeches lauded the efforts of SHG Promotional Forum. They also raised few issues and expressed their anxiety over the issues of quality of SHGs, marketing of SHG products, role of SHG in local area development
and enhancing social / economic scenario of rural Bengal and urged the SHG representatives present in the conference to strive towards realizing the full potential of the SHGs.
 MF products and services - how to address the actual financial needs of the SHG members
Cost of MF products delivery
MF products - how to deepen
Abolition of Child Labour and role of SHG
Right to Information
100 days work under National Employment Guarantee Scheme for the poor
Role of SHGs in improving quality of education
Early marriage, trafficking and domestic violence and role of SHG
The conference is aimed at to create a lively environment through which the representatives bring to the fora their thoughts by means of discussion and cultural activities. Besides that news on SHG,
emerging ideas on SHG based development are spread across the participants by means of distribution/ sale of different books, booklets, leaflets, newsletter etc. so that many others can become aware of all these when these participants
go back to their respective places. Throughout the three days, the participants dealt with various subject, expressed their views on the issues, expressed new ideas and showcased their activities in this conference.
Panel discussions were held on 8 different subjects namely:
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Swalpabitta Barta (Newsletter)
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Swalpabitta Barta is a Quarterly News letter published by forum. It mainly contains different writings of group members about their experiences, problems, success stories etc. The objective behind the newsletter is to share their views among different group members, enhance their writing skill and to make the periodical a voice of the downtrodden women. Forum has published 4 issues of Swalpa bitta Barta during this year. Around 3000 copies in each issue has been published and circulated to the groups through member organizations.
Newspaper Registration of Swalpabitta Barta (Newsletter) is in process. Title has been confirmed; declaration has been filed only registration is left which will be completed after the publication of next issue.
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Swalpabitta Barta Workshop |
To collect case studies from the core members of the SHGs this workshop mode interaction process was developed which came out to be a fruitful medium as the members described their experience sweet or bitter first verbally then in written format.
Forum organised 3 workshops in Rural Development Association, Mandra Unnayan Sansad, Sreema Mahila Samity, Kenduadihi Bikash Society, Bagnan 1 Mahila Bikash Credit Co-operative Society Limited, SPADE, HDC, on 6th to 7th June'06, 14th & 15th June'06 and 12nd & 13th July'06, 7th -8th Aug'06, 8th - 9th Sept'06, 15th - 16th Sept'06 respectively.
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WDU Radio Program (Swayamsiddha)
The program was first aired on 1st of May 2005 and has already completed 115 episodes with grandeur.
The responsibility of the program is distributed among different bodies with overall supervision done by Forum. SPADE used to supply us with script now an individual Mr. Swarajit Bandhyopadhyay writes the scripts, Mr. U. Basu looks after the logistics and WDU responds to the audience queries. Radio broadcasters have even provided us with the status of the program, which indicates success of the radio programme Swayamsiddha named after the flagship programme called 'Swayamsiddha' of WDU.
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Executive Committee Meeting
These meetings are regularly organized. During this period 06 (six) meetings were held. The minutes of the meetings are documented and circulated across.
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Federation Workshop
A federation workshop was organized in the premises of Kajla Janakalyan Samity on 1st to 3rd July'06 where about 80 participants (SHG leaders) from Forum's partner organization were present. Throughout the three days, the participants dealt with various subject, expressed their views and issues related to federation functioning, governance, leadership and futuristic plans.
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Workshops and meetings
At different times meeting were held on emerging issues of the sector like Gram Unnayan Samity, Regional Workshops. Even workshop on such issues were carried on to train and enhance the knowledge of the members other than the frequently dealt topics.
Those workshop were held in different places like Swanirvar from 21 - 22 Aug'06, Sreema Mahila Samity 8-9 Aug'06, Kajla Janakalyan Samity 25-26 Aug'06, Bagnan 1 Mahila Bikash Credit Co-operative Society Limited 28-29 June'06, SPADE 18-19 Sept'06, Mandra Unnayan Sansad 22-23 Sept'06
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We Can Campaign
Forum in collaboration with OXFAM (INDIA) TRUST has started a campaign titled 'WE CAN'. The objective of the campaign is to end violence against women by changing individual perspective for women. Forum has taken this issue as it is very much well linked with the objectives of Forum.
The six-month pilot project has been successfully completed with the help of 11 member NGOs of SHG promotional Forum. Further to this after the national alliance meet conducted by OXFAM (India) Trust at New Delhi and falling in line with their campaign objectives for the Eastern India Forum is all set to
initiate the next phase of the campaign along with 2 other NGOs of the state named Nishthaa and Thoughtshop Foundation since August 2007 till April 2008. The three organizations are working in tandem towards the commonly set objective of making 60,000 change makers who will take forward the campaign message to end all forms of violence against women. In the interim period data entry for creating database of change makers is ongoing.
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Appointment of Auditor
K.N. Jain Company is appointed to complete the financial statement of the 2006 - 2007 sessions and give the report to Forum.
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